Cinema and History
Cinema and HistoryThe Telling of Stories by Mike Chopra-Gant 'This is a very useful book that provides a timely reminder of the complexity of the field of cinema and history… It asks all the right questions, and stimulates the reader to provide answers by indicating the most fruitful paths to follow.' Professor Sue Harper, University of Portsmouth With its unparalleled capacity for realism, cinema seems uniquely positioned to bring history to life for a mass audience. Whether retelling stories about past events or reflecting more contemporary issues, cinema has been arguably the primary source of historical knowledge for many people from its earliest years right up to the present. This volume examines some of the key historical issues raised by popular film, including what film might tell us about the past, the reliability of movies as sources of historical knowledge, and how film might compare to more ‘serious' works of history. A new addition to our Short Cuts series, the book provides an accessible introduction to an increasingly important area of film studies and, through practical case studies, offers original scholarship and illuminating demonstrations of various approaches to film historiography. Combining historical methods with insights from linguistics and film studies, this volume discusses the historical resonance of films such as Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Gangs of New York (2002) and United 93 (2006), and investigates the parameters and limitations of fiction film as a way to access history. Dr Mike Chopra-Gant is Reader in Media, Culture and Communications at London Metropolitan University. He is the author of Hollywood Genres and Postwar America: Masculinity, Family and Nation in Popular Movies and Film Noir (2005).Dr Mike Chopra-Gant is a Senior Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies. His broad research interests are in American popular culture and modern American cultural history (especially the 1940s and 1950s) particularly Hollywood film, cinema exhibition, contemporary US television, genre theory and representations of masculinity, families and national identity. He would be interested to hear from any prospective research students (MRes, MPhil or PhD) with interests in any of these areas.
Contact Details: m.chopra-gant@londonmet.ac.uk |
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